Anjan Mukherji

Global stability condition on the plane: A general law of demand

Abstract It is well known that global stability of competitive equilibrium obtains only under quite stringent restrictions. This paper identifies a set of restrictions which may be interpreted as a very weak form of the so-called Law of Demand and shows how this may imply global stability for motion on the plane. It is also of some interest that this condition is satisfied by a perturbed version of the celebrated Scarf example which does not satisfy existing conditions for global stability.

Robust Cyclical Growth

The stability of cyclical growth within the context of a model in Matsuyama (1999) is examined.It is shown that but for an extreme situation, the two-cycles are unique and a range of parameter values which imply the stability of such cyclical growth is derived. The growth enhancing property of 2-cycles are shown to be retained by any cycle; the results of simulation exercises carried out are reported to show that for very wide range of parameter values, such cyclical growth paths are stable and thus robustness of the conclusions are established. Finally, the configuration of parameters for which the dynamics exhibits complicated (chaotic) behavior is also identified.

STABILITY IN AN ECONOMY WITH PRODUCTION

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the stability in an economy with production. The usual framework within which the stability of competitive equilibrium is demonstrated is that of an exchange economy, so that production decisions have no role to play. The most important result in stability analysis has been the recognition of the fact that in a gross substitute economy, global stability prevails. The most general form of the adjustment process in such a framework has been the one employed by McKenzie. The difficulty with this condition lies in the regrettable but unavoidable fact that if production conditions are normal, some factor inputs are complementary to one another. The chapter reviews the results that are available for application to a production economy. Any condition for stability that allows for complementarity would be such a result.

Goodwin’s Growth Cycles: A Reconsideration

The paper reconsiders the Goodwin’s growth model and demonstrates the extent to which questions relating to robustness of its results can be answered. The paper also provides a method of tackling the boundary problems, in case the solutions encounter them.

Global Stability Conditions on the Plane

The paper considers price adjustment on the plane and derives global stability conditions for such dynamics. First, we examine the well-known Scarf Example, to obtain and analyze a global stability condition for this case. Next, for a general class of excess demand functions, a set of conditions is identified which guarantee not only convergence to some equilibrium but also robustness of these properties.

Quasi-concave optimisation: Sufficient conditions for a maximum

Abstract Two results are presented — one for equality constraints and the other for inequality constraints. Each result provides conditions which together with the relevant first-order necessary conditions are sufficient for a maximum of a quasi-concave function subject to constraints.

Introduction: Conference on governance

In February 2006, Jawaharlal Nehru University organized a conference to discuss the traditional issues relating to governance, as well as those that have become increasingly important over the years in discourses pertaining to governance. The papers presented in the three-day conference reflected concerns relating to both sets of issues. There was consensus among the participants that governance issues needed to be analysed in a broader framework than has been the case hitherto. In particular, it was felt that while it was important to analyse the implications of having different kinds of institutions of governance, it was equally important to consider ways in which the preferences and values of individuals could impact on the institutions of governance; and that a unified approach to governance issues was called for. The eight papers included here for this special issue, a subset of those presented at the conference, deal with a variety of governance issues. Dasgupta and Shimomura in their paper study the impact of free trade on employment and GDP growth in a small developing economy in the absence as well as presence of foreign direct investment. Their results indicate that free trade with or without a corresponding free inflow of foreign capital into the manufacturing sector has a positive impact on employment and GDP growth. Chakraborty’s paper provides an alternative theorization on brain drain. The crucial role of repatriated earnings of emigrants, that can potentially help higher absorption of skill and sustain a higher level of skill differentiation in the domestic economy, is emphasized. Subramanian’s paper takes stock of certain difficulties associated with conventional social choice theoretic formulations of the notion of individual liberty; and advances an alternative formulation in the spirit of an ‘outcomeoriented’ version of Nozick’s approach to individual liberty as the freedom to fix certain personal features of the world. J. Int. Trade & Economic Development Vol. 15, No. 3, 255 – 256, September 2006